Ruining the Kents
by Blaire023
Summary: COMPLETE. Clark can't save everyone. CHLEX


Title: Ruining the Kents Author: Blaire023 Rating: Pg13?  
Disclaimer: I don't own it. And if I did, I might share.  
Pairing: Chlex Summary: Clark can't save everyone.  
This is kinda Angsty, but just read it. I promise it gets better in the end.  
  
WARNING CHARACTER DEATH!  
  
Chloe fought for her hold, wrapping her fingers tighter around the steel bar. Slick with sweat she clung helplessly, kicking her legs back and forth. If only she had the energy to draw herself up. Flexing her arms she managed a half pull up only to have her arms refuse and turn back into their state of jello. With a half cry, half sob she screamed his name. "LEX!" Tears stung at her eyes, she moved her face to wipe them against her arm. Upon hearing her name called she opened her eyes with a false sense of hope.  
  
"Clark." Her desperation coming clear through his name. "God, Clark, help me." She felt his fingers clamp around her wrist. And she watched in silent gaping horror as his veins began to bubble. And his grip slipping away. "Don't drop me, Clark."  
  
"What..." Clark shook his head, fighting the urge to just let go, his fingers dug deeper into her wrist. Sure to leave bruises, or feel it snap beneath his hold on her. "What did he do to you?" He managed to fight the words past his lips before a single tear swept down Chloe's face.  
  
"What?" His voice was inaudible over the roar of the rushing wind. She saw his lips move, slower and slower. A prominent vein bulging on his forehead, disappearing beneath his hairline. And his fingers slipped. "NOOOOOOO!" Her voice echoed through the dusky air as she plummeted to the river below. As Chloe's body hit the water, her last thought was of the man she loved. His clear blue eyes darkening with desire as she fought against him just last night. The laughter escaping her as he wrestled her to the bed. And the denial of just this morning, the denial of him spying on her. Pushing her to the limit of forgiveness. But she had. She had forgiven him just as she always had and would. And with a clear picture of his face, sleeping passively beside her with his arm wrapped around her, flittered and stilled in her mind as she was consumed by total darkness.  
  
Lex watched from the back of the group. It seemed that only months before it had been his funeral all had attended. But now. He brushed the tear aside that rolled down his face. Clark bowed at the front of the crowd. Placing a single red rose on her lowering casket. Never. He would never let Clark Kent come to visit her here. In her resting ground. The maintenance men had been given very specific orders to bury her with the meteor laced soil. He would never trespass on his property again. Clark's eyes met his with mutual understanding. No one would know he had let her fall. Not on purpose. There hadn't been anything for him to do. He hadn't been able to save her.  
  
Lex looked away first, his eyes scanning the crowd of mourners until they rest on his plant manager. With a small nod of his head, he acknowledged his girlfriend's father. Returned was the equivilant of a shaky smile and a wave of a hand, motioning him forward. Lex squared his shoulders and walked over to him. Not surprisingly he was embraced in a watery hug as Gabe's body shook with a silent sob. Lex embraced the man back. He would never have been ashamed to call Gabe his father in law. Something he had hoped he would be able to do. But now.  
  
Looking down as the casket settled into place. Gabe gave his arm a comforting pat before Lex stepped forward. He supposed he should be paying his last respect. His last respect would have been to go back in time and leave Clark Kent bound like a scarecrow out in a field. His last respect would be ruining a family that had once accepted him as their own. Kneeling in the mud, he gave no second thought to the suit he was wearing. He gave no second thought to his actions and the feelings that had been repressed for so long. Giving up he burried his face in his hands and wept silent tears. Silent tears that would be shed for the last time of his life. The hand placed on his shoulder had him shrugging it away. He wouldn't allow Clark Kent any more than what he had taken.  
  
Looking down at the casket he closed his eyes briefly. Wishing only for a moment that he could have her back in his arms. Back in his bed, comforting her with soothing words. Only this time. This time he would use those soothing words to tell her how much he loved her. How much he needed her. How much time he'd spent working up the courage to show her. The diamond ring in his left breast pocket, he covered it with his right hand, so close to his heart. There would never be another love for him. He had given up his one chance at true happiness. She had told him that he could never be saved by anyone. Only by himself, from himself. He knew it was a lie. She could have saved him. And now. He had no reason to be saved.  
  
Chloe stood far enough away to watch quietly over the mourners departure. She scanned the crowd, scoffing at seeing Lana and Pete, hand in hand speaking to her father. That bitch. The one who couldn't keep her mouth closed and ran telling her and Lex's business to everyone that would listen. Pete first. Then Clark and Martha and Johnathon. And then her father. Chloe remembered rolling her eyes as Lana broke the news to her father. And then relished in the memories of having her father pat Lana lovingly on the head and telling her he already knew that. Chloe had never kept anything from her father. Telling him hadn't only lessened the weight on her heart, but had his undying approval of them together. She clasped her hands together in front of her, watching as the three walked off together.  
  
Out of the corner of her eye she watched a pick up truck drive away. There goes the Kents. She thought solemnly. Carefully, cautiously she watched Lex place his hands in his pockets. The lapels on his suit jacket flapping in the wind. Tears slid down her cheeks as she took careful steps over to him. She should have come forward sooner. She knew she should have told him before that she was fine. They had dredged the river and come up empty handed. She knew all of that. But the river that led to another river, and another river could have carried her body with the currents. Instead she had been lucky enough to wake up on the side of the river bank. Her head pounding in her ears. And she had deliberately stayed hidden after she found out her funeral would be today. She wondered if anyone knew, besides her father, that her body hadn't been found.  
  
Lex closed his eyes against the wind. He could almost feel her presence and didn't stiffen as arms wrapped around him from behind. "I miss you, Chloe."  
  
With a sigh she rest her head on his back, her cheek firmly placed between his shoulder blades. "I love you, Lex."  
  
It was his sigh that escaped him as her voice rang loud and clear. He whirled around and gripped her arm firmly in his hand. "Chloe." As if patting her down to assure himself she was real he watched her hair whip around her face and her lips curve into an inviting smile. "Oh, god." His arms wrapping around her he lifted her off the ground and spun once. The world tilted away from him. "You're not dead." He set her back down and she continued to smile, a hint of a frown playing with her lips.  
  
"Do you think I would leave you like that? Come on, give me some credit here." She stood on her toes and met his lips. She tasted the salt on them from his earlier tears.  
  
"But, Clark..."  
  
"Yeah. Clark." She muttered the name and furrowed her brows together inviting the worry line to rest between them. "That asshole."  
  
Lex let out a shallow laugh and rubbed his hands up and down her arms. "God, Chloe. I love you so much."  
  
She laughed a wickedly delightful sound coming from her lips. "Do you know how long I've been waiting to hear that. It figures, it just figures that I had to die in order for you to say it." She gave his chest a slap with the back of her hand. Turning her smile up a few watts she met his eyes with hers. "I love you too, Lex."  
  
With a short laugh he wrapped her in his arms again, not beleiving she was here to touch, so warm, so alive. "Everyone thinks your dead. What are we going to do now?"  
  
Chloe rest her cheek on his chest. "We'll think about that later." She nuzzled her face into his neck, letting her tongue trace patterns on the soft flesh there. "Now, I want you to take me home. Feed me. Get me in a warm bed." She drew back and looked up at him again, a small smile twitching at the corners of his mouth. "And then I want to know how you're going to ruin the Kents."  
  
With a wicked laugh Lex wrapped his arm around her shoulder and her arm fell across the back of his waist. Leading her to his car he whispered promises. Ones that he intended to keep now that he had been given a second chance.  
  
The End

The sequel is rated R/nc17...you can find it at n-s or from the link to my homepage on my profile here.


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